Peter Riggs has extensive philanthropy experience, including 10 years managing the East Asia and Russian Far East environment programs for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; as Program Officer for climate change, forestry and resource rights at the Ford Foundation; and as Senior Advisor on Bioenergy for the Packard Foundation. Peter was the Founder and Director of the Forum on Democracy & Trade. He is currently a consultant and strategist for nonprofits and foundations, as well as a partner in a clam-and-oyster business in southern Puget Sound, Washington State.

He speaks very good Indonesian, acceptable Japanese, comically bad Russian, atrocious Mandarin, and appalling Spanish. He has a B.S. in Population Biology from Oberlin College and a M.Sc. from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.